Boston based DesignLAB Architects designed the World Headquarters for the International Fund for Animal Welfare(IFAW). Given the mission of the IFAW (“provide a better world for animals and people”), the challenge was to incorporate this through sustainable design.

The program distributed in 54,000sqf is arranged in three clean volumes sitting on a reclaimed brownfield site. The volumes are open to the outside, integrated with the surroundings, through transparent planes. To control the sun over these facades, a series of louvres are arranged along them as you can see on the photos.

The building received the LEED Gold Certification, validating the sustainable strategy.

Technology company Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD) new “Lone Star” campus – located at 7171 Southwest Parkway in Austin – has been awarded LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, making it the largest LEED-certified corporate campus in Texas. The $190 million, 870,000-square-foot campus opened in January 2008 on a 59-acre tract in south Austin. Project elements include four four-story office buildings, three recessed parking garages and the Lone Star building, which features an employee fitness center, cafeteria, gourmet coffee bar, casual meeting space, outdoor decks and a gaming center with table tennis, billiards tables and video game consoles.

Austin-based Graeber, Simmons & Cowan served as the lead architect; Texas-based TBG Partners provided programming, site planning and landscape architecture services; Austin-based Paul Koehler Brown and Austin-based Jaster-Quintanilla served as the structural engineers; Austin-based Michael E. James &Associates served as the civil engineer; and Dallas-based Austin Commercial served as the general contractor.

The Austria Pavilion designed by Strauss-Solid-Ritter for the Expo Zaragoza 2008 was an extension of the popular 19th-century “cyclorama” art form. The viewer platform in the center of the panorama and the plastically designed historic panorama architecture in the foreground merge into a white landscape marked by contour lines, which will serve as the pavilion’s exhibition space. This abstracted landscape (i.e., exhibition space) forms the center of the various “panorama spaces” that result from the changing projections, while its abstracted form ensures that the landscape is also an integral part of each projected panorama. For example, when surrounded by images of mountain tops, the landscape transforms into a mountain crest; and when the images change to trees, the landscape becomes a green forest clearing.

The HOC is a schematic design for a small (2,000sf) house in Portland, OR. Architecture W design exploration began with using children’s wood blocks to explore simple concepts of space and light and shade, whilst concurrently thinking of Mies’ experimental Brick and Concrete houses. The project builds upon the modern movement’s legacy of an architecture built on an honest expression of material, structure, and strong ties to the landscape. The House of Cards uses the building blocks of architecture; using plan and section to explore the interplay of volumes and spaces, both inside and out.

Another fresh piece of brazilian architecture thanks to photographer Leonardo Finotti. The store was designed by Marcelo Alvarenga for Coven, a Brazilian brand of knitwear.

The store is based on a refurbishment of an existing 2-story house, wrapped around by a metallic mesh. As you can see on the below photos, the interiors have good lighting, despite the almost hermetic facade.

More photos by Leonardo Finotti and architect’s description after the break: